“He’s brave to want to face those two girls.” Aren reached up into a tree and pulled a boy with curly brown hair out of the branches. Ahnna hadn’t even noticed him there. He looked to be a little more than four years of age, and the eyes glowering at Aren were a very distinct azure blue. “Does your father know you’re climbing trees?”
“You going to tell him?” the boy asked sullenly.
Aren bent low. “I’ll make you a deal. You keep your cousins from knocking Oliver off a cliff or tricking him into eating worms, and I won’t tell your father that you escaped again. Deal?”
The boy, who was clearly Keris’s son Lucas, considered the request, then nodded. “Don’t tell my mum either.” Then he grabbed Oliver’s arm and dragged him in the direction the girls had run. Aren gestured, and more Ithicanian soldiers broke ranks to follow the children.
Ahnna approached Lara, pulling her sister-in-law into a tight embrace. “I missed you.”
“At least this is a happy reunion.”
The last time Ahnna had been in Ithicana had been for her grandmother’s funeral. Nana had been a force to be reckoned with right up to the moment she’d dropped from a heart attack while shouting at Jor for getting water on her floor. Lara had taken her death hard, because for all Amelie had driven her to the brink, she’d been a grandmother to her as well. Taking Lara’s hand, Ahnna circled the lake with her, leaving Aren to walk with James.
She and Lara exchanged letters regularly, so there was no need to ask for updates about Ithicana. Instead Ahnna asked, “Are you happy?”
Lara looked up at her, blue eyes gleaming in the sunlight. Her face was marked with scars from the battle of Ornak, but she seemed to have grown more beautiful with age. “Yes. It’s been a journey, but yes, I’m happy. Although my daughter might be the death of me.” Sherolled her eyes up at the sky. “Aren said that it’s Veliant blood, because all of the cousins are positively feral, except for Yrina. She’s a miniature Zarrah, which of course means she’s the apple of Keris’s eye. But what about you?”
Ahnna looked over her shoulder at James, who was animatedly explaining something to Aren. “Harendell comes with endless challenges, but peace has brought profit, and that makes them happy. I saw an Amaridian vessel anchored. Is Nina here, or just Bronwyn and Taryn?”
“Nina as well. She and Keris’s sister Sara have become fast, if somewhat unexpected, friends. Sara aims to travel back with her to Riomar when she leaves here, and Bronwyn and Taryn will return as well. They like Amarid, and it is good to have them at Nina’s back. She’s funding a new music school, which Taryn will chair. And you didn’t answer my question.”
Ahnna lifted a hand to greet the Ithicanians who had come out of their homes to call her name, their faces familiar. “I think part of me is afraid to admit that I’m happy, because to do so might cause it all to come undone.” She closed her eyes as the wind caught hold of her hair, and her mind filled with her and James galloping through the Ranges. “I have everything my heart desires, that I know for certain.”
“That sounds like happiness.” Lara squeezed her hand, and then they stepped through the open doors of the palace.
Ahnna’s nose breathed in the familiar scent, the building cool and filled with the tinkling sound of fountains. Familiar faces scurried in all different directions as the staff prepared for dinner, and Ahnna waited to be struck with the sense of coming home.
Except this wasn’t home anymore.
Home was Verwyrd. Home was Fernleigh House or Whitewood Hall. Home was Harendell.
“Ahnna!” She turned to see Jor approaching. He’d lost his arm below the elbow from the wound he’d taken on Ornak, but years of peace had done him well. He looked fit and healthy, and the arm that wrapped around her was strong. “You’re late.”
“James wouldn’t let me sail the ship. He says that I scare the crew too badly.”
“This I believe.” Jor moved on to speak with Aren and James, and Lara led her down the hallway, raised voices growing louder with each step. Ahnna opened the door to the dining room to find both Keris and Sarhina on their feet, each waving a book at the other, neither seeming to be listening to a word the other was saying. Bronwyn and Taryn sat near them, watching with amusement. Zarrah and Ensel sat at the table conversing with their hands, a small girl with curly dark hair and dark eyes sitting between them with an illustrated book in her lap.
Everyone stopped their conversations as Ahnna entered, then in a heartbeat, they all began again as if there had been no interruptions. Family, as family was intended to be, and Ahnna took a seat next to Zarrah, Lara taking the one next to Ensel. James and Aren sat with Bronwyn and Taryn, and it was then Ahnna noticed Nina and Sara seated in the corner, heads together as they whispered. The young queen of Amarid lifted a hand in greeting as her eyes locked on Ahnna’s, but though she was Katarina’s granddaughter and Carlo’s daughter, she had proven intent on changing Amarid for the better.
“Ronan sends his regrets that he wasn’t able to come,” Ahnna said to Zarrah. “You made quite an impression on him.”
Zarrah smiled, then leaned over to hug Ahnna tightly. “I’ve invited him to Pyrinat, so we’ll see if he makes the journey. I’m glad to see your face, though. James’s as well. Where is Oliver?”
“With the other children. Lucas has been charged with his defense.”
Zarrah grimaced. “That’s…not a comfort. Yrina, go find your brother and make sure he’s not causing trouble. Take Saam with you.”
The little heir to the Valcottan Empire gave a world-weary sigh, snapped her book shut, then rose. “Yes, Mother.”
Once she was gone, Zarrah looked around, then smiled. “A gathering for the history books, if not for the secrecy. Wouldn’t do forcertain people to know that half the rulers of the known world, and their heirs, are all in one place.”
Lara took a sip from the glass of wine Ahnna poured for her, then said, “It wouldn’t be wise to attack this gathering. Many have tried, and they all rest six feet under.”
“I still know how to run a shipbreaker.” Ahnna flexed her hands and laughed, though she could feel the weight of too many wars, too many battles, too many losses stretched among the three of them. It was a weight none of them would ever shake free from, and one they’d all fight to keep the next generation from experiencing.
The servants began loading the tables with food, and moments later, the children all exploded into the room. Oliver’s clothes were muddy and his coat was torn, but his cheeks were flushed with happiness as he conspired with the other children in the corner. The noise grew, everyone laughing as they moved from conversation to conversation, the children eventually tucked into their beds, and it was well after midnight when Ahnna found herself face-to-face with her husband.
She wrapped her arms around James’s neck, the hum of chatter all falling away. “I haven’t spoken to you all night.”
